- [JP] Hi, this is Jay P. Morgan. - [Adelaide] Hi, I'm Adelaide Lawren,
and today's topic is getting yourself in the public eye.
- Before we begin, we wanna thank Squarespace for not only believing in
your career by sponsoring these business videos, but also for creating a website
platform that'll help you set up your website quickly and create a strong web
presence. Squarespace has generously offered 10% off to the TheSlantedLens
viewers. Use the code slanted to take advantage of this powerful platform today.
♪ [TheSlantedLens: theme music] ♪
- So, JP, we all wanna know how did you get yourself on TV and
really, why was that important for you? - Really? Does anyone really wanna know?
- Oh, we do. - Well, whether you want to know or not,
I'm gonna tell you. I had just finished a book. The book is called, "The Slanted
Lens." And what it is, is a compilation of single-panel
photo comics that I had ran in all the newspapers.
I had about 38 newspapers that ran it each week, and so it
was a compilation of just the lines and the images. Anyway, in that process, the
PR firm I was working with, the publisher said, "We would love to get you on to the
morning shows in Los Angeles. What have you got to offer?" I said, "Well, I can
come in and build a little set. And we can set the host up in the set, have him
fly and do something crazy, and it'll just be a lot of fun.
And they were in love with the idea-- - Yes--
- And so they started sending it to all the morning shows and we got
a great response. Everyone wanted to have it as part of their show.
- Yeah, which shows were you on? - I was on all the morning shows,
like Channel Seven, Eleven, I was on Don and Marie. You know, it was
just a great experience. We would build these small sets, either out on the set
at the location, or we'd adapt their set, or some people came to our studio
and we would put them into a set that we had just built.
So it was a lot of fun. - Yeah. I wonder if you're thinking,
"Okay, I don't build sets, what, what can I do? I don't have money for a PR firm."
So what do you suggest for someone who is in that situation. What can they do?
- You know, you become your own PR firm. All you have to do is take a morning show
that's in your area. Call the producer of the show. That's the person you wanna talk
to. Whomever produces the show is looking for content every day to fill that
time. Interesting things about the community, interesting things that will
create interest, that people wanna watch.
So call that producer and say, "Hey I would love to do a little segment."
"I'm a photographer in this area and I would love to talk about"
"Christmas lights, how to, ten ways to take better pictures of Christmas lights."
And just write yourself up a little script, memorize the things you can say,
and go turn on some Christmas lights, take a picture of the host, and talk about
taking pictures of Christmas lights. You now become the expert in the area and
that's an interesting thing. People wanna learn about Christmas lights, taking the
pictures of Christmas lights at Christmas time.
- Okay, so now I wanna talk about why this is important. When you were on the
news, what opportunities that opened up for you.
- Well, people saw me on the news. Now I'm not trying to get work as portrait
kind of work, so I'm not looking for people to call me off the street, but I
wanna work with art directors, and the art directors are all watching the morning
news, and I got calls from several call centers. "Hey, we saw you on the news,"
"we got a little project." You know, or that was always on the conversation,
so it just gave us credibility. It kind of pushed us up, as far as
these guys are very legit, and so it really gives you that sense.
But you can do that for yourself.
You can write press releases. You send out to the local newspapers about
anything you've done, anything that's interesting. If it's not interesting,
make it sound interesting and try to get the newspaper to run these kinds
of things, or tip off some photography that you can run on the local paper.
Anything that will give you some exposure and people start to see you as an expert.
And they'll also start to realize that you have value, like this is..."Oh wow,"
"this is the person,..." - Yeah.
"you know, the photograph of this person."
- And another, another, like if you wanna start a little smaller,
another thing you can do is if there's an event going on in your community, you
can offer to be the sponsor of that event by taking the pictures for free. And so
you're sponsoring that event and then you can also write a press release about that.
That gets you out in the papers.
- Absolutely, you are looking to be a sponsor and what you're gonna say is,
"Look, I'll take pictures of this event for free. I will send them in to the"
"newspapers for you. I just want my name to be on the program, to be on the banner"
that they put up." Just any way to give you some recognition there, so that
people'll know that you were part of this event. That gives you a lot of great PR.
Take your business cards. You'll pass them out to people, 'cause people will
go on, "Hey can you take pictures?" You know, you're there with your camera,
having and owning, and carrying a camera makes you an expert.
- Seriously. So, on September 3rd... - September 3rd.
- our business class is starting and we wanna help you make a
marketing plan, so we can keep you accountable to these things, and we can
teach you how to write the press releases, how to get them out, how to contact the
producers, how to do all these things, so that you can grow your business and make
the money that you wanna make.
- I was just on the phone with a young man who called me and said, "Hey, I want"
"information about business."
And I took 30 minutes to do a phone interview with him. And when we're done,
he said, "My word, I have learned more about business in 30 minutes than"
"I learned in my undergraduate and my graduate degree in photography."
I'm going, "That's because those kinds of institutions are not set up to teach
people how to set up their business, to run their business
to be able to get clients. We are. We do it. That's what we do.
Adelaide and I will help you to be able to overcome all those hurdles, set up
your business, find clients, and be able to grow your business. So, September 3rd.
- Yes, September 3rd. And I'm doing obnoxious things with my cup.
T.S.L Business Coaching Class. See you then. Spots are limited,
so sign up now.
♪ [TheSlantedLens: theme music] ♪